Overview:

He
was tall, at least six feet, with dirty blond hair that hung over his
eyes. His T-shirt read Nietzsche Is My Homeboy.

So,
that was Matt. Who Julie Seagles likes. A lot. But there is also
Finn. Who she flat out loves.

Complicated?
Awkward? Completely.

But
really, how was this freshly-minted Boston transplant and newbie
college freshman supposed to know that she would end up living with
the family of an old friend of her mother’s? This was all supposed
to be temporary. Julie wasn’t supposed to be important to the
Watkins family, or to fall in love with one of the brothers.
Especially the one she’s never quite met. But what does that really
matter? Finn gets her, like no one ever has before. They have
connection.But here’s the thing about love, in all its twisty,
bumpy permutations – it always throws you a few curves. And no one
ever escapes unscathed.

Flat-Out
Love App:Coming soonInitially
the FOL app will only be available for Apple products. After that,
the team will rewrite it for Android.

“The
original idea for FLAT-OUT LOVE was based on a twist on Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs, so I spent a number of months working on that
outline. But I could never get it to work the way that I wanted it
to, so I shook it out and kept the base themes, eventually outlining
FOL. Once I got writing, it took about six months to complete the
book plus a good month of tweaking.”

Did
you get just as emotional writing FOL as you are now with your newest
book?

“Over
specific scenes and chapters, yes. Before I'd even considered writing
myself, I'd heard authors talk about how real their characters are
for them, how attached they get, and how much they miss them when the
book is finished. I never understood that until I wrote about Matt,
Julie, Celeste, and Finn. It requires a good degree of emotional
investment when writing characters, especially ones like these who
are going through so much, and to deliver characters that touch
readers, I had to feel what the characters did. There were some tough
nights of crying, but I think it paid off.”

Did
you ever think it would become as popular as it did?

“I
really had no idea if anyone would respond to the story, so I was
rather terrified to release it. FOL is a unique story in so many
ways, and I wasn't sure if I'd have a readership. Seeing it take off
the way it did was stunning and wonderful.”

Is
there a message you want your readers to take at the end that you
didn't think a lot of people got?

“The
idea of not missing people who are right in front of you, not missing
out on spectacular romantic relationships and friendships because
someone doesn't fit into who we are taught to find appealing. Celeste
is not the average preteen, but she's well worth getting to know. And
Matt? He's no Finn. Julie battles this struggle herself, finding that
she's drawn to the classically handsome, athletic, ultra-masculine
guy, while for a while missing the more off-beat, but equally
charismatic guy who is right in front of her. So ignore socially
constructed ideals, and follow your heart.”